Ye Olde Starre Inn is reached through a covered galleried passageway off Stonegate — easy to miss if you don't know it's there, which is part of the point. The pub has been licensed since at least 1644, which makes it one of the oldest in York. Low ceilings, uneven floors, and a fire in winter complete the picture. It is by any measure a tourist pub — in a tourist city, on the most tourist-heavy street — but the building itself is genuine and the atmosphere is better than the setting might suggest.
During the English Civil War the pub allegedly served as a field hospital for Royalist troops during the Siege of York in 1644. Whether or not this is true, it is the kind of claim that suits the building. York's ghost-tour industry includes the Starre on most itineraries, and the pub leans gently into its supernatural reputation. The cask ales are decent and the food adequate.